Rotten Tomatoes' 140 Essential Action Movies

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Welcome to our guide to the most Essential Action Movies! Where everyone enters…and only 140 leave. Which sounds like a lot, but when you’re considering thousands of action movies, it’s only the most thrilling, the most exciting, the most brutal, and the influential who make the cut!

Action is a wide-open genre and term, and we endeavoured to include something from every era, style, and movement of action movies. We have the classics (Die Hard, The French Connection), modern fan favourites (Hardcore Henry, John Wick), superhero blockbusters (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and plenty from the macho ’80s (Commando, First Blood). Not to mention some action genre crossovers: sci-fi (Equilibrium), horror (They Live), and, of course, comedy (Beverly Hills Cop).

Internationally, we reach as far as Hong Kong (Police Story, Hard-Boiled), Australia (The Road Warrior), England (Kingsman: The Secret Service), France (La Femme Nikita), Indonesia (The Raid: Redemption), Korea (The Villainess), and beyond.

These are the action movies whose influence can be seen in the films that followed. They spawned franchises, pushed back against time, defined and even expanded the genre. These are the badass movies that make audiences feel cooler from having seen them. In the interest of keeping the Essential Movies as tight and pure as possible, we excluded the genres of war, sports, Western, and samurai. Otherwise, a movie’s Tomatometer score was not a factor, so long as the plot was kicked forward in a hail of bullets, car chases, fist fights, and martial arts wizardry.

Now, it’s time to pound faces and popcorn, with the 140 Essential Action Movies to watch now!

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  1. 62 new

    Goldfinger

    1964, in 15 top lists Check
  2. 104 new

    Bullitt

    1968, in 11 top lists Check
  3. 52 new

    Dirty Harry

    1971, in 17 top lists Check
  4. 56 new

    The French Connection

    1971, in 23 top lists Check
  5. 135 new

    Shaft

    1971, in 10 top lists Check
  6. 127 new

    Xia nü

    1971 — a.k.a. A Touch of Zen, in 15 top lists Check
  7. 59 new

    Jing wu men

    1972 — a.k.a. Fist of Fury, in 8 top lists Check
  8. 26 new

    Enter the Dragon

    1973, in 14 top lists Check
  9. 61 new

    Assault on Precinct 13

    1976, in 6 top lists Check
  10. 102 new

    Superman

    1978, in 11 top lists Check
  11. 96 new

    The Warriors

    1979, in 8 top lists Check
  12. 73 new

    Escape from New York

    1981, in 5 top lists Check
  13. 11 new

    Mad Max 2

    1981 — a.k.a. The Road Warrior, in 14 top lists Check
  14. 7 new

    Raiders of the Lost Ark

    1981 — a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 29 top lists Check
  15. 24 new

    First Blood

    1982, in 5 top lists Check
  16. 77 new

    Beverly Hills Cop

    1984, in 7 top lists Check
  17. 22 new

    The Terminator

    1984, in 24 top lists Check
  18. 112 new

    Code of Silence

    1985, in 1 top list Check
  19. 25 new

    Commando

    1985, in 2 top lists Check
  20. 85 new

    Ging chaat goo si

    1985 — a.k.a. Police Story, in 10 top lists Check
  21. 39 new

    To Live and Die in L.A.

    1985, in 2 top lists Check
  22. 6 new

    Aliens

    1986, in 24 top lists Check
  23. 81 new

    Big Trouble in Little China

    1986, in 3 top lists Check
  24. 133 new

    Highlander

    1986, in 2 top lists Check
  25. 140 new

    Running Scared

    1986, in 0 top lists Check
  26. 126 new

    Top Gun

    1986, in 8 top lists Check
  27. 66 new

    Ying hung boon sik

    1986 — a.k.a. A Better Tomorrow, in 10 top lists Check
  28. 35 new

    Lethal Weapon

    1987, in 5 top lists Check
  29. 14 new

    Predator

    1987, in 9 top lists Check
  30. 33 new

    RoboCop

    1987, in 15 top lists Check
  31. 113 new

    The Running Man

    1987, in 1 top list Check
  32. 117 new

    Bloodsport

    1988, in 1 top list Check
  33. 2 new

    Die Hard

    1988, in 21 top lists Check
  34. 100 new

    They Live

    1988, in 7 top lists Check
  35. 107 new

    Batman

    1989, in 9 top lists Check
  36. 28 new

    Dip huet seung hung

    1989 — a.k.a. The Killer, in 16 top lists Check
  37. 68 new

    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

    1989, in 16 top lists Check
  38. 137 new

    Road House

    1989, in 3 top lists Check
  39. 132 new

    Die Hard 2

    1990, in 3 top lists Check
  40. 54 new

    Nikita

    1990 — a.k.a. La Femme Nikita, in 4 top lists Check
  41. 12 new

    Total Recall

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  42. 93 new

    Point Break

    1991, in 9 top lists Check
  43. 3 new

    Terminator 2: Judgment Day

    1991, in 27 top lists Check
  44. 128 new

    El mariachi

    1992, in 4 top lists Check
  45. 53 new

    Ging chaat goo si III: Chiu kup ging chaat

    1992 — a.k.a. Police Story 3, in 4 top lists Check
  46. 69 new

    Hap do Ko Fei

    1992 — a.k.a. Full Contact, in 2 top lists Check
  47. 5 new

    Lat sau san taam

    1992 — a.k.a. Hard Boiled, in 12 top lists Check
  48. 106 new

    Under Siege

    1992, in 2 top lists Check
  49. 99 new

    Cliffhanger

    1993, in 3 top lists Check
  50. 87 new

    Demolition Man

    1993, in 1 top list Check
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Last updated on Jan 7, 2024; source